Mr. Jobs and Stock Options, continued

Reuters is reporting that Apple's Steve Jobs has been 'questioned' by the SEC and the Justice Department in connection with the backdating of Apple's options during the 1998-2006 period. (See previous posts.)

Even if Apple's story holds up (which is that a few individuals, former CFO Fred Anderson and former General Counsel Nancy Heinen, and perhaps Wendy Howell, a lawyer who reported to Heinan) were responsible for all of the bad actions, it is still not surprising that the "Feds" want to talk to everyone who was involved.

Today's story also noted that:

Chris Steskal, the lead attorney in the Justice Department's investigation, left in January to join law firm Fenwick & West LLP as a partner, according to the firm's Web site.

The Fenwick & West site states that

Prior to joining Fenwick & West, Chris [Steskal] was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, working as part of the Securities Fraud Section and Stock Option Task Force of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco.

In a coincidence, TPM's Muckraker site also reports that San Francisco U.S. Attorney Keven Ryan also recently left his post; there are rumors about a recent series of U.S. Attorneys who have left their posts in the past few months under cloudy circumstances. The renewal last fall of the USA Patriot Act apparently gave the Bush Administration wide(r) latitude to replace U.S. Attorneys.